


Faenomenal!

by Taisy22



Category: Original Work
Genre: Fae & Fairies, Family, Family Feels, Gen, Magic, Probable angst to come, Sisters, Time Skips, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-13
Updated: 2019-03-13
Packaged: 2019-11-16 14:33:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,903
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18096206
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Taisy22/pseuds/Taisy22
Summary: A young family's life is turned upside down in a train accident. Three sisters are separated from each other and from their parents, and they are each introduced to an amazing magical world, where the only limit to their power is the extent of their will. They receive wonderful gifts in exchange for horrible sacrifices. A good upbringing accounts for something of one's personality, but under immense pressure how far are these sisters willing to be swayed from what they've been taught to be true and right? Will anyone emerge from this rabbithole unscathed? Will anyone emerge at all? I don't know cause I haven't finished writing it yet but let's find out!





	Faenomenal!

**Author's Note:**

> I haven't finished planning this yet so I'm not entirely sure how everything will pan out, but I will update the ratings as needed!

A burgundy train hurtled through the night, racing down a predestined path which while obvious to its conductor, the train itself could neither anticipate nor acknowledge for its lack of sentience. One can assume, however, that if it could do either of these things it might have felt a bit of pity for the ill-fated guests who dozed within the depths of its back-most chamber. Inside the last car sat only a handful of travellers. An overworked businessman on his way home from a business trip sat with his eyes closed as he thought of seeing his wife and cat again in a few short hours. The cat would surely wake him up in the middle of the night to yell at him for leaving for so long, but he smiled at the thought. A woman taking a weekend trip home from college to visit her boyfriend of two years sat near the back of the car, excitedly texting her boyfriend the details of an internship she’d just been offered. And a young family quietly sat in the setting rays of the sun, all decked in appropriately somber apparel for the funeral from which they were returning. They carried little luggage with them, and were surrounded by the small toys of three young daughters.  
  
A slight bump in the train tracks woke the infant sleeping on the mother's chest, and she let out a wail. The mother woke with a start and started cooing at the daughter to shush her. The next eldest child sat next to the mother, and she reached up to pat her baby sister's head reassuringly. The oldest daughter sat in front of her sisters and mother, and she sleepily raised her head to look out the window to the dimly lit cityscape flashing by outside. Her eyes drifted downwards to the track below them and the small plants that zoomed by beneath them. Her breath caught when the ground disappeared and gave way to a metallic bridge that lay several hundred feet above a wide, deep blue river. The water far below sparkled gold and silver with the sun’s last setting rays. Mesmerised by the view below, she almost didn’t notice a flock of three small grey birds- seemingly silver in the sunlight- flying past the train. One bird had a wing striped with red, the next with blue, and the last with green. The red-winged bird seemed to stare at her for a moment with dark, inscrutable eyes, before the flock veered off away from the train. She had not seen that kind of bird before so she turned to ask her father beside her what kind they were, but when she turned back they were gone.  
  
As they came closer to the city more streetlights appeared, the light of which intermittently illuminated her drowsy family in dusty amber tones. Wind whistled through a small crack at the top of the window, and she shivered and pulled her dark shawl closer around her. It was a swishy shiny material that did not feel good and did not help to keep her warm at all. The only benefit was that she felt very pretty spinning around in it. Unfortunately, minimal spinning was permitted at funerals. She lamented being made to attend the horribly dull death party anyway, as she had only met the old man whose life was being celebrated once a few months ago. Her parents had never spoken kindly of him before that anyway so she didn’t know why they needed to go. She supposed that was one of the mysteries of being an adult that she had yet to appreciate. She did know, however, that as the eldest sibling, she was supposed to set a good example for her little sisters, so she had sat quietly throughout the sermons and speeches, and had only played tic-tac-toe with her sister on the program a few times.  
  
The eldest girl turned around in her seat to look at her younger sister, and whispered “Lulu? Are you awake?”  
  
The middle girl popped her face over the back of the seat.  
  
“Yesss Archie, how could I possibly sleep with this train going KACHUK-KACHUK-KACHUK all the time? And the conductor keeps on making it go WOOO WOOO, and how am I supposed to sleep with that??”.  
  
Lulu was attempting to whisper but neither her personality nor her vocal cords were designed for discretion. Their mother just put her finger over her lips and gestured to the baby in her arms.  
  
The girls nodded, then Archer grinned and spoke more quietly.  
  
“You couldn’t wait to hear the horn earlier today!”  
  
“Uhh yeah, that was before I realised how annoying it is! It’s like, I’ll watch one episode of Ana’s baby shows but then I’mmmm done-zo! We get the point, numbers and colours are fun, but can we switch to Phineas and Ferb now? Same thing here, one horn was cool mister conductor guy, but now we get the point”. Lulu rolled her eyes dramatically.  
  
Archer put her hands on her cheeks and excitedly turned to her father.  
  
“Hey Dad! Can we use the tablet to watch an episode of Phineas and Ferb?”  
  
Lulu gasped and grinned toothily before standing up in her seat and hugging their dad as far as she could reach from behind his seat.  
  
“Oh my gosh yes please Dad?”  
  
Several minutes later the girls sat in the back of the car sharing a pair of earbuds and jovially singing along to the show's theme song. As the intro finished and the music faded out, Archer bumped her sister’s shoulder with her own and looked over at her.  
  
“Hey Lulu,” Archer whispered, “did you see a couple of birds out the window a few minutes ago? They were shiny and colourful and like REALLY fast too”.  
  
Lulu put her hand on her chin in a dramatic show of pondering her inquiry, but shook her head and said “Nope! Was it like a parrot? My teacher showed me a picture of a parrot and it was really really colourful”. Lulu widened her eyes and spread her hands to emphasise just how colourful the parrot was.  
  
“No dummy! Parrots don’t live here, it’s way too cold for them. They live in jungles and stuff. It was more like… the prettiest pigeon ever!”  
  
“Maybe they’re still outside. They could’ve landed on the train. I know!” Lulu quickly looked over her shoulder at the door to the exterior of the car, then looked back at her sister conspiratorially. “Let’s go find out!”  
  
“Lulu no! It’s gonna be so cold out there, don’t-”  
  
Despite Archer’s objections, her sister had hopped up out of her seat, and startled Archer by dropping their tablet to the floor.  
  
“Hey, don’t break the tablet! You’ll get in so much trouble if you-”  
  
Her voice was cut short by the gust of wind that swept through the cabin as Lulu pried the door open. After glancing back at their again-sleeping parents, and at the woman who had looked up from her phone to eye them but made no comment, the girls dashed out onto the platform and carefully swung the door shut again. To Archer’s surprise, three silver birds sat on the railing at the edge of the platform. With the sun having set by now, the birds were only lit by the lights within the cabin, and she could see that they were, in fact, silver, and that it had not just been the light playing a trick on her eyes. The birds stared at the two girls in a manner that could only be described as expectant. Lulu turned and grinned at her sister, sticking her tongue out.  
  
“Ha! I knew they’d be here! Wow they look like they’re made of tin foil… are you sure they’re real?”  
  
Lulu walked over to the birds to try to pet the blue striped one but it stepped to the side to avoid her hand, and gave her what could only be described as a haughty glare. Lulu pulled her hand back and sulked for a moment.  
  
Archer, in the meantime, had found a portion of the railing to grip onto with all her might, while also glaring at her sister. “Lu!!! Don’t touch them! You know what Dad says about the raccoons having rabies, maybe the birds have bad stuff too-”  
  
It was at this moment that a flash of blinding white light was emitted from the interior of the cabin, accompanied by a horrendous screech of metal that made both girls clasp their ears in pain. The car started rattling on its rails and the sisters were slammed against the door by the train’s sudden deceleration. Archer grabbed her sister, who was too stunned to be crying, and she held her in a tight embrace. She felt something warm and wet on the back of Lulu’s head and her head started spinning with panic, but she could see that Lulu was still conscious at least, and was biting her lip so hard that a stain of blood was creeping down her chin.  
  
The girls didn’t see the smoke filling up the cabin, and leaking out of the hole Lulu’s head had left in the glass behind her. They didn’t know that the train car was slowing down so drastically because it had detached from the rest of the train and was slowing to a stop on the bridge still far above the water, while the rest of the train continued its ignorant journey onwards. They also didn’t see that the birds had been unfazed by the disaster happening around them, but they did hear the green bird start to sing out an inappropriately cheerful song. They heard the song fly over their heads as the green bird flew above them and through the hole in the window, and on the other side of the door the birdsong seemed to transform into a melodic hum. Archer’s vision was turning hazy and black at the edges. She suddenly felt two hands under her arms, prying her away from Lulu and scooping her up into their arms. She saw a blue-robed figure similarly holding the unconscious figure of her sister. Archer squirmed around for a moment and found that she herself was resting in the tight grip of a crimson-robed figure. She tried to push herself away but the figure’s grasp just tightened around her.  
  
The blue assailant backed up towards the door, then with a running jump hurled herself and Lulu off the train into the night. Archer screamed and tried to reach out for her sister, though she knew she was too far away to help, but instead of plummeting towards the river below, the blue figure was picked up by a strong gust of wind as if she only weighed as much as her cape. The two were swept away into the night sky, quickly out of sight.  
  
“No!” she cried out. “Lu…”  
  
A woman’s rough voice spoke above her but the wind pulled her words away. The woman must have seen the confusion in Archer’s face because she sighed and leaned down closer to Archer’s ear. Her voice was almost pitying.  
  
“My darling, you needn’t worry about her anymore. Worry for yourself, dear.”  
  
And with that, the red figure, with Archer ensnared in her grasp, leapt off the train car and hurtled towards the water below.


End file.
